Weekly Roundup: January 21st, 2022
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This Week on Better Questions
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The Cultural Narratives of Crypto
Man, this was a BEAST. To be honest, I was a bit nervous wading into these waters - one, because it's highly complex, and two, because people have very strong opinions about it one way or the other.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out overall. I don't plan on covering crypto all that much on BQ, though I'd like to do a piece on the environmental implications of crypto. Problem is, those are ALSO extremely complex, and tend to elicit even stronger opinions. So we'll see.
Something On My Radar:
I recently watched Up with my kids for the first time, and the first five minutes of this movie are among some of my favorites.
There's something to the way this film captures the ups and downs of a deeply-loving relationship that just nails me every time. It also made me realize how rarely we see truly empathetic and touching depictions of the lives of older people.
Five Interesting Links For The Weekend:
Fantastic piece on why, after decades of recommending small doses of Asprin to prevent heart disease, we're just now seeing a reversal. FANTASTIC read for increasing your scientific literacy.
You Can’t Simply Decide to Be a Different Person
Can you truly motivate yourself to change long-standing behaviors? No, says the author. Interesting perspective, although I feel they end up missing the mark a bit.
Ava is a wonderful writer and this is a good one.
I don’t want to pretend like I’m too good for ugliness, for effort, when I know very well that it’s the price that unlocks everything beautiful in the world.
The Brilliance of Yield Farming, Liquidity Providing and Valuing Crypto Projects
If you're interested in learning more about crypto, the next two links are for you.
In this link, Mark Cuban (of "Shark Tank" fame) outlines the "DeFi" (decentralized finance) space, and some of what makes it so interesting. Peer-to-peer lending? Bankless banking? Incredibly high interest rates?
Cuban does a good job here explaining why the space can be so exciting.
Pair that reading with our next one...
Melting Iron: How to Lose $2b in One Day - DeFriday #5
Cuban, in the article above, mentions "TITAN" - an "algorithmic stablecoin."
Shortly after Cuban wrote his piece, however, TITAN exploded in dramatic fashion. Nat Eliason - a crypto and DeFi proponent - does an excellent job of breaking down what happened.
Complex systems tend to lead to dramatic and outsized "black swan" events. This is a perfect example of that tendency, and it's one that I worry many crypto-enthusiasts haven't quite grasped.
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